The Art Emerging In A New(ish) Museum
Come along with me to see a new museum filled with contemporary art that, for the most part, hasn’t been overexposed. My recent trip took me to Morocco, where … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-12-1
Hedda Gabler: monster or philosopher?
My colleagues among the London critics are divided by Ivo van Hove’s new National Theatre production of Hedda Gabler, in an un-gimmicky, plain new version by Patrick Marber – except that they all agree in their high praise of Ruth Wilson’s performance in the title role. … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2016-12-14
Trifonov Plays Shostakovich
No other music so instantly evokes a sense of place as that of Dmitri Shostakovich. When Daniil Trifonov launched Shostakovich’s E minor Prelude at Carnegie Hall last week, the bleakness and exigency of Stalin’s Russia … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2016-12-14
Author: Matthew Westphal
What Do ‘I Love Lucy’, ‘Seinfeld’, ‘Arrested Development’, Rick And Morty’, And Every Other Sitcom Have In Common? The Magic Formula
“Almost all sitcoms can be divided into seven segments, each of which sets up or advances the plot in a specific way. As a result, it’s possible to predict at around what minute in an episode the main character will declare their goal, encounter their first obstacle, and succeed or fail at getting what they want. This formula is the reason sitcoms can be written at such a fast rate, and sometimes wind up seeming, well … formulaic. But it’s also the reason many sitcoms are able to find new and groundbreaking ways of being funny.”
Afrofuturism – A Cultural Genre Comes Into Its Own
“Familiar to some, exotic to others, the term refers loosely to an unlikely fusion of parts: Egyptian and other non-Western mythologies, mysticism and magical realism with Afrocentricity, modern technology and science fiction. A freighted concept in more ways than one, it gained traction this year, muscling its way into the pop cultural mainstream via the intertwined worlds of entertainment, art and style.”
A Different Kind Of Year-End List: The Ten Best Audiobooks Of 2016
Laura Miller: “During this long, ugly year of shouting there’s been something profoundly restorative about just listening: popping in a pair of earbuds, taking a long walk (or clearing out a neglected closet), and immersing yourself in a world of someone else’s making.”
From Victim To Feminist Heroine: Artemesia Gentileschi
Curator Judith Mann: “She is a phenomenon in terms of the history of art, because we really understood her life far earlier than we cared, really, about her painting. And the understanding of Artemisia as a painter, as an artist, followed the fanfare of her celebrated rape, and it made a rather skewed understanding of this artist. And now we try to go back and fill in and properly understand.”
Why They Staged The David Oyelowo/Daniel Craig ‘Othello’ In A Big Plywood Box
Director Sam Gold and set designer Andrew Lieberman modeled the space “on the kind of temporary military installations that have U.S. troops have mounted in deserts in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last dozen years or so, and put the audience on three sides of the action.” Here they talk with Rob Weinert-Kendt about the hows and whys.
They’re Still Trying To Find Ferdinand And Imelda Marcos’s Mysteriously-Disappeared Art Collection
“As time has passed, the government has tried out different, more innovative strategies to find the art. But the results have been slow to come in, and the Marcos family is once again gaining political power. … Earlier this year, it started an interactive website to crowdsource information. Like any respectable social media campaign, the website features a clever Twitter hash tag: #ShowMeTheMonet.”
‘They Fold Their Bodies Like Origami’ – Flexing, Brooklyn’s Latest Form Of Street Dance
“Reggie Gray stood in the wings at BRIC House ballroom in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, one recent Sunday evening and watched, along with a full audience, as waves of dancers took the stage to do battle. Their moves were at turns staggering contortions and graceful glides, sweeping artistry and fleeting chronicles of everyday life.”
Exit Interview: Alan Gilbert Prepares To Leave The New York Philharmonic
“In his wake, he leaves a formidable legacy of experimentation that expanded not just what an orchestra can and will do, but who it’s for. Gilbert and [Helga] Davis sat down in his office to talk about what he means by serving a community, the moments in performance he lives for, and how maybe he could’ve benefited from throwing tantrums and showing his stress more.” (podcast)
E.R. Braithwaite, Author Of ‘To Sir, With Love,’ Dead At 104
“[He] was a World War II veteran and trained as a physicist at the University of Cambridge. But, as a black man from what was then the colony of British Guiana, he had difficulty finding work in his field in the early 1950s. ‘I was too black to be a scientist,’ he once said, ‘and too educated to be a lot of other things.'” But he became a teacher at a progressive school, where his experiences became the basis for his most famous book.